READING COMPREHENSION PASSAGE BASED ON CLASS XII SAMPLE PAPER (2022-2023)

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:

1. The Higgs boson has been called, or miscalled, the God particle, enabling it to pass into the realm of popular scientific lore, like the discovery of the smallpox vaccine, the structure of DNA, or the theory of relativity. It would be difficult for most people to understand its significance, just as it would be to comprehend the notion of relativity, but such problems are overcome by locating science in personalities as well as cultural and national traditions. The first thing that you and I know about the Higgs boson is that it’s named after Peter Higgs, a physicist at Edinburgh University who made the discovery — although the original insight, in one of those recurrent back stories of science, was Philip Anderson’s. 

2. Still, we have Higgs, and Edinburgh, and western civilisation to fall back on. The rest — “the Higgs boson is a hypothetical elementary particle predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. It belongs to a class of particles known as bosons ...” — we needn’t worry too much about. But maybe we should worry just enough to ask, “What is a boson?” since the word tends to come up as soon as Higgs does. Is it, an ignoramus such myself would ask, akin to an atom or a molecule? It is, in fact, along with the fermion (named after Enrico Fermi), one of the two fundamental classes of subatomic particles. 

3.From Bose

The word must surely have some European genealogy? In fact, “boson” is derived from Satyendra Nath Bose, an Indian physicist from Kolkata who, in 1924, realised that the statistical method used to analyse most 19th-century work on the thermal behaviour of gases was inadequate. He first sent off a paper on quantum statistics to a British journal, which turned it down. He then sent it to Albert Einstein, who immediately grasped its immense importance, and published it in a German journal. Bose’s innovation came to be known as the Bose-Einstein statistics and became a basis of quantum mechanics. Einstein saw that it had profound implications for physics; that it had opened the way for this subatomic particle, which he named, after his Indian collaborator, “boson.” Still, science and the West are largely synonymous and coeval: they are words that have the same far-reaching meaning. Just as Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec’s paintings digest the Japanese prints they were responding to so we don’t need to be aware of Japanese prints when viewing the post-impressionists, western science is pristine, and bears no mark of what’s outside itself. 

4.Other Indian contributions

The last Indian scientific discovery that is universally acknowledged is the zero. Indians are very strong at maths, and the only modern Indian who’s remotely part of the western mythology of science is Srinivasa Ramanujan, equally well known for his Hindu idiosyncrasies and his agonised stay in Cambridge as he is for his mathematical genius.

5. Indians can be excellent geeks, as demonstrated by the tongue-tied astrophysicist Raj Koothrappalli in the U.S. sitcom Big Bang Theory; but the Nobel prize can only be aspired to by Sheldon Cooper, the super-geek and genius in the series, for whom Raj’s country of origin is a diverting enigma, and miles away from the popular myth of science on which Big Bang Theory is dependent. Bose didn’t get the Nobel Prize; nor did his contemporary and namesake, J.C. Bose, whose contribution to the fashioning of the wireless predates Marconi’s. The only Indian scientist to get a Nobel Prize is the physicist C.V. Raman, for his work on light at Kolkata University. Other Indians have had to become Americans to get the award. 

6. Conditions have always been inimical to science in India, from colonial times to the present day; and despite that, its contributions have occasionally been huge. Yet non-western science (an ugly label engendered by the exclusive nature of western popular imagination) is yet to find its Rosalind Franklin, its symbol of paradoxical success. Unlike Franklin, however, scientists were never in a race that they lost; they simply came from another planet. 

Based on your reading of the passage, answer twelve out of fifteen questions that follow: [ 1 X 12 = 12]
1. What is the first thing which the narrator knows about Higgs Boson?
The first thing that is known about the Higgs boson is that it’s named after Peter Higgs, a physicist at Edinburgh University who made the discovery.
2. What is Bose-Einstein statistics?

Bose’s innovation came to be known as the Bose-Einstein statistics and became a basis of quantum mechanics. It had profound implications for physics; that it had opened the way for this subatomic particle, which he named, after his Indian collaborator, “boson.”

3. How does Sheldon view Raj’s country of origin?

For Sheldon Raj’s country of origin is a diverting enigma. He says that India is a mysterious country difficult to understand.

4. What do Van Gogh’s paintings do to Japanese prints?
Van Gogh was influenced by Japanese art and Japanese print making was his main source of inspiration.
5. Has India always got the credit for its merit?

Conditions have always been inimical( obstacles) to science in India, from colonial times to the present day; and despite that, its contributions have occasionally been huge but India was not credited for its merit.

6. What do Higgs Boson have in common with Smallpox vaccine?
i. Both are used in medical radiography.
ii. Both are part of scientific myth and legends now.
iii. Both were met with scepticism on their discovery.
iv. Both fetched their teams a Nobel prize.
7. Which statement is not true about Boson?
i. They were not discovered by Enrico Fermi.
ii. They constitute one class of subatomic particle.
iii. It is named after an Indian Physicist.
iv. It was discovered by Satyendra Nath Bose.
8. Choose the word which is an apt synonym of the word Ignoramus (used in para 2)
i. Idiot
ii. Intelligent
iii. Idealist
iv. Ingenious
9. How are esoteric scientific concepts made understandable for people?
i. By printing short introductory courses.
ii. By comparing it with other scientific discoveries.
iii. By locating science in personalities, social and cultural traditions.
iv. By revising the country’s educational structure.

10. Based on the reading of the passage, which statements are correct about Higgs Boson.
1.They are called God’s particle.
a. Philip Anderson’s study provided the original insight.
b. This concept is easily understood by common people.
c. A physicist from Edinburgh University made the discovery.
d. It was discovered by Albert Einstein.
11. Which field of Physics was SN Bose working on?
i. Quantum Mechanics
ii. Electromagnetism
iii. Geophysics
iv. Acoustic
12. Which scientist/ mathematician out of the following won the Nobel prize?
i. JC Bose
ii. C V Raman
iii. Srinivasa Ramanujan
iv. SN Bose
13. What is Srinivasa Ramanujan known for in the popular culture?
(1) Mathematical genius.
(2) For formulation of game theory.
(3) Hindu Idiosyncrasies.
(4) Troubled stay in Cambridge.
(5) For devising another explanation for chaos theory.
i. 1, 2 & 3
ii. 1, 3 & 5
iii. 1, 3 & 4
iv. 1, 4 & 5
15. The conclusion of third paragraph highlights that
i. Western art grants recognition to all its inspirations.
ii. Van Gogh painted Japanese prints.
iii. Western art subsumes all the influences under it.
iv. Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec are post-impressionist painters.
16. Why did JC Bose deserve a Nobel?
(i) He was an Indian physicist.
(ii) He was the only one researching on wireless.
(iii) His research & findings on wireless started before Marconi.
(iv) He acquired an American citizenship.